This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Post a reply

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:09 pm

Man Jerry, that's a great idea. Best of both worlds.

Andy Scott

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:48 am

Chris,
I'm thinking some minor engine modifications and adjusting thee center of gravity. Such as this beautiful one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ish567ZgU

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Fri Jul 12, 2013 7:37 am

If anyone's interested, VFM has a couple of jeep bodies (one appears to be a Ford GPW) and a bare frame that are gonna get sent to the scrap metal dealer if we can't find a good home for them. They're rough, but probably the basis for a long-term restoration project. Any offer above scrap value will be seriously considered! One way or another, they've gotta go. Contact WIXer "CrewDawg" (Bill Gorin) if you're interested.

We also have the pickup bed from an old Chevy LUV pickup truck, complete with tailgate. Mount in on one of those bare frames that they sell at Northern Tool and you'll have a nifty cargo trailer. Make us an offer and give it a good home! (contact "CrewDawg" on this one also).

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:17 am

Great project! You are not alone....I am just finishing my 1942 Ford GPW.....and she has the EXACT same data plate on the drivers side of the engine.
Image
I would love to swap info with you on the Daimler engines if you take yours apart. The S/N on the data plate should be stamped on the rear of the engine below the throttle linkage, etc.
Here is my Daimler rebuild GPW:
http://www.questmasters.us/1942_GPW_69289.html
And you can follow her on FaceBook:
http://www.facebook.com/QuestMastersMuseum

I would love to see close up's of that data plate on your MB....as I've never seen another one! The two glove box plates are not German....they are French.

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:55 pm

I'll get a clear shot of that engine plate as soon as I can figure out a way!


In the meantime....... a simple and small update. My dad wants to continue working on the Jeep as much as possible, regardless of how small of a job it may seem. He figures if we keep doing whatever we can, the bigger stuff will fall into place. So today we noticed that the passenger's seat cushioned weren't completely fastened down.

Image

Neither was the back rest.
Image

So I busted out the trusty ice pick from the kitchen and lined up the holes...
Image

Image

Then it was a matter of screwing in the new screws...
Image

Two original bolts we're still attached to the bottom of the seat pan for the bottom cushion. These we're NOT MOVING so we ground out the nuts and made quick work of them.
Image

Image

Image

Next was to mark where the holes had to be punched into the cushion and installed. (Sorry for the blurred images)
Image

Image

No picture of the finished result but you get the idea.

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:09 am

Looking good! Keep plugging away at it, big and small! Before you know it, you'll be out pounding the pavement it a great Jeep!
Jerry

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:33 am

Jerry O'Neill wrote:For blinkers, you might thing about magnetic ones so you can take them off if you want a real vintage look.


IIRC...For registration/inspection you don't have to have turn signals but if you have them, they must work.

Mudge the inspector

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Thu Jul 18, 2013 12:37 pm

Did you ever figure out your braking problem? I'd bet it was because of the incorrectly sealed cap. That fluid evaporates over time, the same thing happened to my MB, it had a small hole in the cap and eventually the well was dry. I screwed up while bleeding the brakes and snapped off one of the screws for that on the final (passenger side front) wheel, so be careful with your wrench when you bleed them (assuming you haven't already). Nobody makes a repro metal cap so I bought the plastic one, which is a bear to get your hand in there to get it off to inspect the fluid levels.
FYI, I'll be at the MVPA convention in Portland next week, with a war correspondent display (it'll be tough to miss in the main hall, not bringing my 1944 MB, though). If any of you happen by, feel free to say hi!

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:20 pm

The plates shown above the speedometer photo are in French.

The plate on the left says "FRONT" across the top, I suppose to give reference to the shift patterns shown below. "Boite de Vitesses" literally translates to "Box of Speeds" (so, "gearbox" or "transmission" in English". "Boite Auxilliaire" literally translates to "Auxiliary Box", or "Transfer Case" to you and me.

At the bottom of the left plate is the standard good advice to take it out of four wheel drive when driving on hard and dry surfaces, lest one tears up their boite auxiliaire!

I think it's obvious what "ATTENTION" means across the top of the right plate. It gives maximum speeds for each gear. At the bottom of the right plate are instructions for draining the water out of the engine's cooling system.

Thank you for sharing this project. Even though it isn't an airplane, anyone who is into airplanes will be familiar with these vehicles from the countless number of them that appear in aircraft photos.

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:53 am

p51,

Not yet. As stupid as it sounds, we misplaced the right size sockets in the back of our rental van that we drove to Geneseo and back, then forgot to take out. So we've been dealing with the car rental company to track down the van and get our sockets returned to us. Soooooo hopefully on Sunday we'll be doing the messy business and be riding around the neighborhood by the end of the day.

Propsrule,

Thanks for the detailed explanation of what the French plates are!

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:20 pm

Spent the afternoon with Warbird Kid and his dad, Dennis. It's a great little project Jeep. :drink3: It's fun to volunteer on a strange project, breaks up the monotony of the same long term restoration projects I look at every week. So now it looks like I'll have to get me a new toy to follow them around in at events... :lol:

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:54 pm

It was a fun day yesterday. Especially since we finally put the Jeep on the road and got her actually down the road! Drew was a big help and a valuable set of extra hands. We even ran down to the shop and grabbed a few extra needed tools.

We got that pesky Master Cylinder Cap off and found that it wasn't bone dry.
Image

Heres yours truly inspecting the MC.
Image

We poured more brake fluid in and began bleeding the brakes. Kind of messy to say the least. I know how we'll be performing this task next time.

Image

We put her outside to test the brakes before taking her out.

Image

Image

First ride with her!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybomb13/9340244254/

Found a few problems with her, namely the emergency brake line was RUBBING AGAINST THE DRIVE SHAFT. :shock: Not pleasant so we'll be rerouting that. We'll also be bleeding the brakes some more to try and see if we can get better traction. Other than that, the horn is still on our short list. Always more work to do!

Image

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:42 pm

I'm thinkin it needs invasion stripes...

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:37 pm

Drew, :vom:

Anyways onto some small updates! We tested the horn, and sounded out just fine! But she looks a little rough, so off she came. (Only attached with one bolt :roll: )

Image

Image

I'll be taking this to the shop to have it sandblasted (along with the air filter) and then both painted semigloss black.

On the day we brought this Jeep home, we had already ruined her. This black smudge of grease showed up. Anyone have any ideas on how to remove grease from canvas?

Image

Another big task to undertake was the inventory of all the parts that came with the Jeep.

Image

Box O' Mystery

Image

A couple of neat items that we're included in the buy, was an WWII US Infantry foxhole shovel and pick axe.

Image

Looks like she was used

Image

And of course the pile of miscellaneous parts. Anyone want to identify?

Image

We also have a set of brackets for the canvas top. We have the frame and what you see here. Anyone know what we're missing?

Image

We also added an extra light in the garage (over the engine compartment) just to see a little easier.

Image

Some other things we did today was to reroute the parking brake cable. This is looking much better, considering how badly the cable was rubbing on the drive shaft before.

We also reversed the linkage bolt connecting the clutch. Again it was improperly installed.

Image

Image

All in all not a bad day. Things to still do is bleed the brakes some more to see if we can get the pedal up. If we don't see any success, then we'll have to consider replacing the master cylinder.



Image

Re: Our 1942 MB Project

Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:48 pm

Couple of new things....

My parents drove the Jeep all the way to Hamden to have it physically checked out by someone from that particular DMV. I guess since it was a short serial number, only specific DMV's are able to sign off on them. While on the way, second gear started making a "knocking sound" which raised some alarms. After the inspection we trailered it down to the museum in preparation for the Corsair Car Show. She can still drive, but my father takes her out of second pretty quickly. So now we're looking at either swapping out the transmission or repairing it. Anyone have a Willys / Ford 1942 Transmission lying around?

Anyways here are a few shots of her, escorting the Corsair to the parking lot for the Car Show.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

I should also mention that the Jeep became the museum "hack" being used to transport last minute items and personnel to and from the museum.
Post a reply